For this issue, we had gift-giving on our minds. We asked our quilt designers:
In your experience with fiber arts,
1. What was the most rewarding gift you gave someone?
2. What is the gift you received for which you are most thankful?
And we told them to feel free to reach waaaay back to childhood if they wanted.
JEROME THOMAS
The most valuable gift I have received, aside from the love from my family, was bestowed upon me at a very young age. My father was not a churchgoer but very much loved and respected all of creation. He would often say upon looking at our mountainous countryside of Vermont, “This is my church.”
My father grew up on a farm here in Vermont, no running water or electricity. He went to a one-room schoolhouse down the road from the farm. His family lived off the land, raising crops and stock, hunting, harvesting ice off their pond in the winter, and storing it in hand-dug earth cellars to sell in the summer. The family respected the land and the beauty of creation. They were grateful
